Portugal Is Next: Improverished PIIG Demands US Assistance, Debt "Haircut" To Come Next

It has been just over 48 hours since our call that PIIGS the world over will scramble to demand the same concessions that were just granted to Greece courtesy of its economy being in the toilet and getting worse (thanks to lies to misrepresent the Greek economy as being worse than it really was). We already got Ireland yesterday. Now it is Portugal's turn. Reuters reports that "Portugal asked Mexico on Saturday to tell fellow G20 members next week that the United States should offer "financial help" to resolve the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, describing it as a "systemic and global" problem, a Portuguese government source said." Of course, the "US" is a clear proxy for "everyone else" - that the US, whose politicians can't agree on a fiscal stimulus for the US, let alone for some country by the straits of Gibraltar they have never heard of, will not move an inch to save Portugal is a given. Which means that once Portugal is, as it anticipates perfectly well, shut down by the US it will commence demanding for help from those who at least can grant it - the EMU and the Eurozone. And when those refuse, Portugal will do the glaringly obvious: take a page right out of the Greek textbook and proceed to suicide its own economy. And why not - it worked miracles for Greece. Now: two down and two to go. The only question is when does Italy do precisely the same logical next step, and tell the world that its $2+ trillion in debt, the second most in the Eurozone after only Germany, is unsustainable, and will need a modest haircut. 20% should do it. We wonder, what will that do to French banks (and their "perfectly hedged" US proxies - such as MF Global and others)?

"The crisis isn't in the euro zone. It is a systemic and global crisis and we hope that other big G20 countries intervene," the source told reporters in the capital Asuncion, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source added that Washington should help resolve the crisis "by boosting trade and also with financial help."

No one from Calderon's delegation in Asuncion could immediately be reached for comment.

Financial markets rallied strongly this week after European leaders hammered out a deal to recapitalize their banks, boost the firepower of a euro zone rescue fund, and impose hefty losses on holders of Greek debt.

Portugal's deepending financial plight was described in great detail late last week by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph:

Monetary contraction in Portugal has intensified at an alarming pace and is mimicking the pattern seen in Greece before its economy spiralled out of control, raising concerns that the EU summit deal may soon washed over by fast-moving events.

Data released by the European Central Bank show that real M1 deposits in Portugal have fallen at an annualised rate of 21pc over the past six months, buckling violently in September.

"Portugal appears to have entered a Grecian vortex and monetary trends have deteriorated sharply in Spain, with a decline of 8.4pc," said Simon Ward, from Henderson Global Investors. Mr Ward said the ECB must cut interest rates "immediately" and launch a full-scale blitz of quantitative easing of up to 10pc of eurozone GDP.

The M1 data - cash and current accounts - is watched by experts as a leading indicator for the economy six months to a year ahead. It has been an accurate warning signal for each stage of the crisis since 2007.

A mix of fiscal austerity and monetary tightening by the ECB earlier this year appear to have tipped the Iberian region into a downward slide. "The trends are less awful in Ireland and Italy, suggesting that both are rescuable if the ECB acts aggressively," said Mr Ward.

A shrinking money supply is dangerous for countries with a high debt stock. Portugal’s public and private debt will reach 360pc of GDP by next year, far higher than in Greece.

And where monetary shrinkage arrives, economic deterioration is always next. But just to make sure of that, Portugal has just set the first of many dates for a General Strike. Mark November 24th on your calendars. This is when Greece officially becomes Portugal.

I wish these Occupy folks would steps things up a few notches. It would be nice to see some violence. Molotov cocktail projectiles directed at those who anger them. Maybe a few unprovoked attacks of the innocent pedestrian 'observers' who come to gawk at the protesters. Something. I want action.

Really? everyday...I am not sure I can take that video seriously but I suppose if everyone in this country did it for just one month it might work...until they caught on and had the postal police at your door with some trumped up charges of mail fraud or something like that, but come to think of it when I was younger I used to mail everything., and I mean everything...bricks included.

Portugal asked Mexico to tell the US that Spain and Italy were picking on her saying that they were dumber than Greece and Andorra combined even though nobody's said shit about Andorra for weeks when in fact she'd been in France for the G-willickers meetings all the time and not told Germany, said Britain.(walks off in a huff)America starts yelling behind her back that if she wants something to talk to her directly and stop this caddy two faced nattering.(Portugal breaks down in tears)

Wanker Timmay will be dispatched by Wall Street Teleprompter-Puppet-in-Chief Obama Bin Lyin' to tell the EU their answer is Big Time QE, "Leverage that shit up bitchez," and save the banksters at all costs..

Portugal had recently offered to give independent well-off immigrants to Portugal, 10 years tax-free on income sourced outside of Portugal.

It is a very nice country, with friendly people.

And the 'fortified' Port or Porto wine from Portugal, is very tasty and good for your health. Plus being about 50% stronger than regular wine (wine with a little brandy, often quite sweet), a couple glasses of Porto will send you to bed in a nice mood.

But, For What It's Worth FWIW, a Portuguese businessman recently told me ... "We're just all waiting for Portugal to go bankrupt. But we're waiting for the right moment."

and an American bank robber was recently "discovered" there even though he'd been there for more than a decade. that would be catastrophic for the EU if Portugal became a tax haven. it would be a "very big one"...easily the biggest in the world. if they added "bank protections"...that would make them "Switzerland on the Sea."

Hey just wait a fucking minute. We haven't even gotten done with Greece yet and now you're talking about Portugal raising their hands for the Greek Screw-Your-Buddy Deal when Cypress has already called first dibs? God, you ungrateful fuckers keep this up and everybody's gonna want sombody else to take a lick on their hairy end of the lollipop before it's all over.

The outcomes of these sovereign debt deals, both past and future, only make sense from one perspective. You have to forget all about the poor peasants and focus on the collateral (or is it derivative) damage. If only you could see 99.9% higher up the food chain you would discover who is the barber and who is sitting in the chair. Got scope?

The entertaining, indeed enlightening, part of all this will be digesting the spin that explains away the obviously corrupt process governing who ultimately gets the Mullet.

Therein lies the transparancy that allows freedom to the modern investor.

Let's not forget what kind of debt is being written down, or 'haircutted". It is unearned money used to fund insupportable social benefits schemes when the governments in question didn't have enough revenues to balance their books. Most European debt is because the politician gave everybody what they wanted all the time - especially the immigrants. So in order to stop accumulating debt, the social order that was being supported by the debt will have to be eliminated. The problem with that is that the entitled way of life is so ingrained in Europe, and so many of society's fringe-dwellers are so totally dependent on government handouts, that to withdraw them would create a continent-wide violent revolution. Unless so-called 'austerity' is accompanied by the largest relocation/repatriation program in the history of the world, literally sending home every immigrant who has come to Europe in the past 30 years, there is simply no hope of saving Europe - none at all. The wogs have simply done you in, old chaps.

Many think that was the plan all along - create a huge dependant class whose very existance prevents meaningful political change - because the threat of unrest is very real, the productive tax paying classes can meanwhile be looted at leisure.

The UK immigration figures are interesting in that a look beyond net immigration shows a lot of anglo saxon, productive tax payers have been saying `enough` for a decade now and jumping ship. Many older folks have gone to retirement and leisure ghettos in Marbella etc, but a lot of the young and energetic have gone to South America, the Antipodes and Asia.

I am explaining to my teenage children that they need to learn a transportable skill (medicine, engineering, agriculture) and make sure they work and travel before deciding where to live. All my grandparents left England in their very early 20`s to go out into the world and earn a living not returning to live here again until in full retirement. It is likely that a lot of todays youth will need to be as flexible and adventurous.

Whose banks did we bail out in Europe last time and why not now? Hard to see the twinzini tots, Benke and Timit not coughing up whatever the people thatown them want. They have always known the money doesn't exist, but they get to have more of it, and that may be all that matters to them. BoA with 75T in derivatives have already died but no one can bury it because it will crash the network of lies, just like it will when any one of them goes. Look at the idiocy the other nations have to point to as a rallying cry. We wear scapegoat like a glove.

These aparatchik's are going to kill us by starting a war after having pissed off every other nation on earth for crashing them. Don't we have any independent law enforcement in DC that has the obligation to act in cases of high treason, sedition, aiding foreigners to destroy the nation, and other such primitive white collar crimes? These kinds of crimes have to be stopped due to their destructive power, but we get nothing.

The Portugueese Finance minister was on BBC Newsnight a few weeks ago. He made it pretty clear that `for now we remain committed to servicing our debts as per the schedule agreed with our creditors`. When asked if that would remain the case should Greece be offered some debt relief, he smiled broadly and when pressed admitted that such an event would be a `game changer`.

Perhaps markets will realise that 1+1 is not 17 after all - and sell off next week. How long can reallity be kept at bay. It would be more than epic if the major indicies which shook out a lot of shorts (self included) with their vertical climb through the 200dma did a spactacular reversal - right about now!